久しぶり! Part 2

Holy crap, I have not written in a while. Plenty of things have happened since I wrote last.

For starters, Valentine's Day came and went. In Japan, Valentine's Day is split into two holidays: Valentine's Day proper, where the woman treats the man; and White Day, where the man treats the woman (White Day was two days ago). Anyway, for Valentine's Day Yoko and I went to an Italian restaurant at my request. We ordered a bottle of prosecco (Italian Champagne), of which I drank 75%, she a glass. Like fire and gasoline, prosecco and 95 lbs. Japanese girls do not mix well, so Yoko was hammered. We finished dinner and Yoko was becoming noticeably boisterous, so I promptly paid the bill and ushered her out of the place. She stopped near the front door to examine thoroughly the various advertisements and classifieds posted at the front door (like we all do) at which time she began to hiccup loudly, which she continued in the street, on the train, through the train station, and all the way home. The Japanese are wont to prolonged stares and this exhibition drew a few. After a few second-looks from passing pedestrians, I began gesturing to everyone in a manner to assure them that I was not taking advantage of her. In any case, it was a fun night up to that point.

I moved. If anyone has not figured out yet, I am not returning to University of Chicago until the Summer quarter, or around July. I found out that classes at Waseda for another semester were free for me, so I decided to stay to load up on Japanese courses. Also, a 20% drop in the USD/Yen exchange rate, approximately 40% drop in the S&P, a spike to 80% in the VIX, and the general speculation that all US Banks were either "zombies" or "de facto nationalized" led me to conclude that now was not the time to return to finish my MBA and get a job in finance. I'll hang in there for a few more months; I am not THAT tired of eating rice. In any case, I will have some pretty pictures of my new haunts up in a few.

I finished my semester. I had two intensive courses in February to cap it off, including an Operations Management course that included field trips to the Hino Automobile and the Suntory Beer Factories. Oh yeah, fun time. The latter included (I am not making this up) an after-party with snacks and bottomless beer (seriously). The Suntory trip pictures are in the gallery to the right (G-rated), but there is nothing of Hino. Face it, it's a lame-ass automobile plant; what did you want to see? Joking aside, I was impressed with the efficient manner in which these two plants operated and the ethos of their employees.

Tonight Yoko and I ate Mexican again. This time it was a restaurant run by real Mexicans! They spoke Spanish; it was great! The food was legit, too; not Texas quality, but much better than before.

Really important: There is a Denny's within walking distance of my new apartment.